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Install Quarto#

Quarto is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system built on Pandoc, and allows users to create dynamic content with Python, R, Julia, and Observable. Additional information about Quarto is available at https://quarto.org/.

These instructions describe how to install Quarto on a Linux server.

Installation methods#

Posit recommends two methods of installing Quarto (select one of the following links to navigate to the corresponding section, or read on for the differences between the methods):

Install Quarto using .tar.gz file:

  • To install multiple versions simultaneously, you must install Quarto using .tar.gz files. This installs Quarto to a non-standard location, so you must create a symbolic link to make the quarto command available to users. Some use cases in Posit's professional products may require multiple versions of Quarto.

Install Quarto using .deb file:

  • Installing Quarto from a .deb file places the quarto binary at the default location. This method only supports installing a single version to the default location. You can specify a version, or easily install the latest version.

    Important

    This installation method only works on Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions. For other Linux environments, you should install Quarto from .tar.gz.

Quarto .tar.gz file install#

These instructions install Quarto from release archives (i.e., .tar.gz files), which lets you install it to a custom location. This makes it possible to install multiple versions concurrently. However:

Specify Quarto version#

Review the list of available Quarto versions: https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/releases/.

Now, set the QUARTO_VERSION environment variable to the version number you wish to install:

Terminal
$ export QUARTO_VERSION="1.2.262"

Download and install Quarto using .tar.gz file#

Download and install the version of Quarto specified in QUARTO_VERSION:

Terminal
$ sudo mkdir -p /opt/quarto/${QUARTO_VERSION}

$ sudo curl -o quarto.tar.gz -L \
    "https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/releases/download/v${QUARTO_VERSION}/quarto-${QUARTO_VERSION}-linux-amd64.tar.gz"

$ sudo tar -zxvf quarto.tar.gz \
    -C "/opt/quarto/${QUARTO_VERSION}" \
    --strip-components=1

$ sudo rm quarto.tar.gz

Important

To install Quarto on RHEL 7 or CentOS 7 platforms, you need to modify the file ending in the URL to linux-rhel7-amd64.tar.gz instead of linux-amd64.tar.gz.

A full URL example below:

"https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/releases/download/v${QUARTO_VERSION}/quarto-${QUARTO_VERSION}-linux-rhel7-amd64.tar.gz"

Verify Quarto installation#

Verify that your Quarto installation was successful:

Terminal
$ /opt/quarto/"${QUARTO_VERSION}"/bin/quarto check

Applicable to Workbench, only. Not required for Connect.

Important

This section only applies to the first installation of Quarto on a given system. For subsequent installations, skip this section.

  • Installing Quarto from the .tar.gz file using these instructions places the executable in a location that is not on the default system PATH variable.

  • If you need the quarto command to be available to your users — for instance, if you are installing Quarto on Workbench — you need to create a symbolic link from a location on the system PATH to an installed Quarto executable:

    Terminal
    $ sudo ln -s /opt/quarto/${QUARTO_VERSION}/bin/quarto /usr/local/bin/quarto

(Optional) Make Quarto available for Python editors#

In Workbench, RStudio Pro sessions have Quarto available by default. To use Quarto in VSCode or JupyterLab, you will need to either symlink or install Quarto into a location on the PATH for those editors.

Terminal
# If using the default Quarto bundled with RStudio Pro
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/quarto/bin/quarto /usr/local/bin/quarto

# If you have installed a non-default Quarto 
# from a .tar.gz using the above instructions
$ sudo ln -s /opt/quarto/${QUARTO_VERSION}/bin/quarto /usr/local/bin/quarto

(Optional) Install multiple versions of Quarto#

To install multiple versions of Quarto on the same server, repeat the steps above, setting QUARTO_VERSION to a different version number each time.

This:

  • Places different versions of Quarto in parallel folders.
  • Allows you to support multiple Quarto versions in some of Posit's professional products.

For example, if you installed Quarto 1.0.38, 1.1.251, and 1.2.262 to a Connect server, then you may configure Connect with all three versions of Quarto by providing multiple Executable options to the Quarto section of Connect's configuration file.

File: /etc/rstudio-connect/rstudio-connect.gcfg
[Quarto]
Enabled = true
Executable = "/opt/quarto/1.0.38/bin/quarto"
Executable = "/opt/quarto/1.1.251/bin/quarto"
Executable = "/opt/quarto/1.2.262/bin/quarto"

Quarto .deb file install#

In an environment where you intend to only maintain a single installation of Quarto, you can install Quarto from a .deb file. This places the quarto binary at the default location, /usr/local/bin/quarto, which automatically makes the quarto command available on the default PATH.

Important

This installation method only works on Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions. For other Linux environments, you should install Quarto from .tar.gz.

Download and install Quarto using .deb file#

Optionally, download a specific Quarto version, or download the latest version.

Download:

Review the list of available Quarto versions: https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/releases/.

Now, set the QUARTO_VERSION environment variable to the version number you wish to install:

Terminal
$ export QUARTO_VERSION="1.2.262"

Then, download the .deb file for the specified version:

Terminal
$ sudo curl -o quarto-linux-amd64.deb -L https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/releases/download/v${QUARTO_VERSION}/quarto-${QUARTO_VERSION}-linux-amd64.deb

A link to the latest Quarto version is maintained on the Quarto website.

Terminal
$ sudo curl -LO https://quarto.org/download/latest/quarto-linux-amd64.deb

Install:

Install Quarto by running (you may need to install gdebi first):

Terminal
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
$ sudo gdebi quarto-linux-amd64.deb

Verify Quarto installation#

Verify that your Quarto installation was successful:

Terminal
$ /usr/local/bin/quarto check
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